Humanity faces serious environmental challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion. The urgency to move towards environmentally sustainable and circular design practices has become more pressing. In this context, the role of materials design practices in promoting environmental sustainability is increasingly recognised. However, despite this awareness, there is an urgent need to develop a critical perspective on these approaches. Materials designers must be able to address real-life issues and meet today’s challenges to contribute in the transition towards sustainability and regeneration. With the aim to equip designers to make crucial decisions, this paper reviews and analyses 43 empirical material design projects collected over a decade (2014–2024). By capturing their characteristic features and industry applications, practical trends and patterns implemented to foster environmental sustainability are identified. The study presents emerging directions, principles and challenges in contemporary materials design. These directions aim to encourage a responsible economy that embraces design solutions with lower negative emissions, reduced and conscious use of resources, and promotion of biodiversity. By highlighting trends, principles, and challenges, this paper contributes to the strategic materials design discourse, offering insights and considerations for advancing ecologically conscious practices that support economic growth and reduce the deterioration of the ecosystem.